2 12 RlDGWAY on a Tropical American Hawk. 



Sonic specimens presumed to be adult females have the sides 

 of the breast grayish-brown, like the wing-coverts, without any 

 tinge of rufous. 



While the young are, like the adult, sometimes immaculate 

 beneath, as described by Mr. Sharpe, they appear to occasionally 

 have the lower plumage striped with dusky, since Mr. Gurney 

 (Ibis, 1876, p. 4S0) describes an example from Peru, which he 

 refers to B. fuliginosus, and which " bears a considerable gen- 

 eral resemblance to the young of Buteola brachyura, from 

 which, however, it differs in having all the feathers of the under- 

 pays, except those of the throat and crissum, which are immacu- 

 late, embellished with a conspicuous dark longitudinal shaft- 

 mark of varying breadth, these being narrowest on the upper 

 breast and abdomen, broader on the lower breast, and occupying 

 almost the entirety of each feather on the flanks ; on the tibiae 

 the shaft-marks are expanded into a double transverse bar across 

 each feather : the transverse dark bars on the upper surface of 

 the tail in this specimen are ten, whereas in the immature 

 Buteola brachyura they are but seven." 



(?) Buteola fuliginosus Sclater. 



Little Black Hawk, 



(= melanistic phase of B. brachyurust 



Buteo fuliginosus Scl. P.Z.S. 1858, 356 (Tamaulipas. N. E. Mexico: = 



young $ ) ; Trans. Zool. Soc. iv, 1858, 1, 267. pi. lxii. — Lawr. Ann. 



Lye. N. Y. ix, 1868, 133 (La Palma, Costa Rica); Bull. U.S. Nat. 



Mus. no. 4. 1S76, 42 (Tehuantepec City, S. W. Mexico). — Ridgw. Pr. 



Philad. Acad. 1S70, 142. — Gurney, Ibis, 1876, 235, 477-'8o (critical). 

 "Buteo brachyurits" Salvin, P.Z.S. 1870, 215. 

 "Buteola brachyura" Gurney, Ibis, 1876, 477~'8o (part). 



Hab. Eastern Tropical America, from Brazil to Northern Mexico 

 (Mazatlan and Tamaulipas) and Western Florida (Oyster Bay). 



Sp. Ch. — Size small (total length not exceeding 16 inches); wing 

 proportionately long, reaching, when closed, nearly or quite to the end 

 of the tail. 3rd or 4th quill longest, the 1st equal to or longer than the 

 10th ; four outer quills with inner webs emarginated. the cutting less 

 abrupt on the 4th, however. Tarsal scutellse 8-11. Wing, 11. 20-13. 20; 

 extent of primaries beyond longest tertials, 2.50-4.50; tail, 7.00-8.00; 

 culmen, .70-.85 : tarsus, 2.05-2.65 ; middle toe, 1. 35-1. 60. 



Adult : Uniform black or dusky, varying from dark sooty brown to 

 almost a coal-black, freshly moulted specimens usually having a chalky 

 or glaucous cast on the back, and a more or less distinct purplish reflection 



